Derivative: 'Number Four' flawed in countless ways

I Am Number Four is shameless and unnecessary. That's sad, when a movie casts aside all shame, demonstrates itself willing to rip off anything that might attract audiences, and nevertheless fails. What we have here is a witless attempt to merge the Twilight formula with the Michael Bay formula. It ends with sexy human teenagers involved in an endless special effects battle with sexy alien teenagers who look like humans, in a high school and on its football field.

Let's pause for a moment to consider this apocalyptic battle. It is all special effects. None of it is physically possible. It might as well be a cartoon; it's essentially CGI animation intercut with brief bursts of inane dialogue. Brief, because the global action market doesn't much care about dialogue, and besides, when people start talking about something, you could run into the hazard of having actual characters in a plot. Minute after relentless minute, creatures both human and alien, whom we care nothing about, wage war and occasionally disintegrate into clouds of tiny pixels for no particular reason. Full review.

2 comments

Seriously, who cares about this movie, whether it was good or bad, or a rip off or original. Who cares about any movie for that matter. It's not important.

But that's just me. Our society is way too wrapped up in entertainment and distraction, instead of waking up and looking around at the world and seeing what's really going on right under their noses. Then when aware types come along and try to tell people what's happening, the entertainment obsessed masses laugh at them and call them crazy, then go back to sticking their nose in a movie or glue themselves in front of the TV.

End rant! ;)

Cleveland March 9th, 2011 | 9:07am

Why is this rant, written Feb 23, attached to a movie review written 12 days later?